Abstract：Scientific and technological journals（STM journals）are important carriers for recording， selecting， preserving， inheriting， and developing the body of human knowledge， and they play a significant role in promoting the progress of social scientce and technology innovation， making outstanding contributions to human social advancement. In order to comprehensively understand and grasp the essential content and its developmental changes of STM journal publishing activities， and fully appreciate the social value of such journals and its evolution， our research aimed to provide a more holistic theoretical framework to guide the scientific development of China’s STM journal industry in alignment with its founding mission and the evolving social needs. This research attempted to analyze the social context and formative conditions for STM journals` emergence， and then to examine in depth the evolution processing of their social functions across different developmental stages and different publishing technological change periods， and at last to unearth and understand the trace that the essence of journal publishing evolved with the times. The results indicate that with continuous innovation and iteration in journal publishing technologies， STM journals are advancing in many aspects， especially in content production techniques， presentation formats， dissemination and transformation channels. In the course of human society development， their social functional boundaries are extending progressively， and simultaneously the essence of STM journal publishing has gradually expanded from its basic functions as a “carrier for the selection， authentication and dissemination of knowledge” to a “system for organizing， recording， and preserving information”， and then to a “bridge connecting and facilitating interaction within the scientific community，” and further to a “builder of platforms for scientific exchange and service.” In this new era of development， STM journals are stepping onto a path of transformation from traditional publishing institutions to high-level professional service platforms， with many journals already actively embodying their core service-oriented essence on a large scale.In the future， the “one body with two wings” development model， including “one specialized journal empowered by emerging publishing technologies and concepts”“one well-known branded conference based on the integration of government， industry， academia， research and application”，and “one professional product （platform） catering to the needs of the general public”，may become the mainstream choice for the high-quality development of the top-tier STM journals. High-quality content organization and publication dissemination form the basic foundation of building top-tier STM journals， while the provision of high-quality comprehensive services integrating government， industry， academia， research and application is an essential condition for adhering to the original serving purpose of journals and truly promoting the path toward high-quality development of STM journals.
胡小洋,曹启花. 从出版到服务：科技期刊出版活动本质的时代拓展[J]. 华中师范大学学报(自然科学版), 2025, 59(5): 795-801.
HU Xiaoyang,CAO Qihua. From publishing to services： the era expansion for the essence of STM journal publishing activities. journal1, 2025, 59(5): 795-801.
2025, Vol. 59 
